'You may say I'm a dreamer'. If only they were, John.

The Shadow Chancellor’s speech was called “the political equivalent of David Brent” and “reheated mantras of a bygone era” by the Lib Dems after he echoed Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’, about a better world.

He told the Liverpool conference: “In the birthplace of John Lennon, it falls to us to inspire people to imagine. Imagine the society that we can create. It’s a society that’s radically transformed, radically fairer, more equal and more democratic.

The Lib Dems’ jibe was just the beginning.

Some imagined there was no policy...

Nice for McDonnell to credit Lennon with writing Imagine, given that it forms the 2020 Labour manifesto in full.

Lib Dem economic spokeswoman Susan Kramer said of McDonnell’s effort: “To be fair most speech writers say open with a gag and when he said ‘we have to become a government in waiting’, he delivered a decent joke.”